An envelope for your troubles
by tardisbluephoenix
Summary: "I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously?" The Doctor wants River to know, to always remember, when she meets younger versions of him, that he really does trust her. ONE-SHOT!


**Disclaimer**: I don't own any of the characters. I'm just borrowing them for a little while.

**Title**: An envelope for your troubles

**Fandom and pairing**: Doctor Who, Eleven/River

**Summary**: The Doctor wants River to know, to always remember, when she meets younger versions of him, that he really does trust her.

**Rating**: K+

**Context**: River's timeline after DOTM and Doctor's timeline after TWORS.

**Quote prompt**: "I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously?"

* * *

He stepped out of the heavy blue door.

"Hi honey, I'm home."

"Hello, Sweetie. What's got you so happy?"

"I can't be happy when I come and visit my wife in prison in the middle of the night?" he smirked, glancing at her quickly, to see her reaction at hearing him call her his wife, as he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the security camera and the lock in turn.

"Where are you?" she asked, with a small smile.

"Oh, me?" he slid the cell door open with his foot, and leaned his back against the cold stone wall, resting the foot he'd used to kick the door casually on the wall at the height of his other knee. "I just married a beautiful woman at every point in history, and evaded death," he winked at her. "Where are you?"

She mimicked his stance, opposite him, against the open cell door, and rattled off her latest adventure. "Well… I stood on a beach and watched myself shoot my husband, then helped my parents, who didn't know they were my parents, cremate his apparently dead body. But then bumped into a younger version of him in a diner in Utah, slapped him across the face, nearly got arrested for breaking into the Oval Office, and chased a former regeneration of mine in a spacesuit around Florida. Then I ran for three months, jumped off a building to avoid being arrested by the FBI, helped save my husband's butt after he broke into NASA and tampered with Apollo 11, and revisited the orphanage where I grew up and was trained to kill my husband. Then saved my mother, who didn't know she was my mother, from the creatures who kidnapped me when I was a baby. A normal few months in the life of River Song." She chuckled.

"How long ago was all that?" he asked softly, pushing himself from the wall and stepping towards her.

"You dropped me back a few days ago…" she trailed off, her eyes glassy as she remembered the kiss.

He moved closer, smiling softly, until he had closed the gap between them, and the toes of his boots were but an inch from the toes of hers. He reached up and pulled a curl repeatedly, watching as it stretched and then bounced back into place. "You thought that was your last kiss," he whispered, watching the curl intently.

She was glad he was avoiding her gaze. She couldn't bear to look at him, to let him see her this vulnerable. She buried her head in the crook of his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Yes," she whispered, against his jacket.

"Hey," he whispered softly, pulling back to look into her face. "It wasn't."

"Oh?"

"Nope." He leaned in, then, and touched his lips to hers, cradling her face in his hands carefully. When they broke apart, he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.

"Number two," he whispered, opening his eyes after a few moments. "I numbered the envelopes in a specific order. I gave you envelop number two, because I trust you, River. You're my wife." He smiled.

"You didn't know that at the time," she raised an eyebrow.

"I had an inkling," he smirked. He looked down. "Besides, I thought you'd need the reminder. You were travelling with a younger version." He paused, and looked back at her, his eyes searching her face, begging for forgiveness, for understanding. "I didn't know who you were, back then, River. I didn't know if I could trust you. But I remember the look on your face, when I refused to trust you." He took one of her small hands between two of his. "I just hoped that the envelope would be enough to make up for that; to remind you that no matter how distrustful my younger selves are, that I do trust you, and I do love you."

She touched her forehead to his again, and closed her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.

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